George Beach is just a guy who can’t say no.

The founder and chairman of Beach Communications, the nation’s oldest black-owned advertising firm, expanded his operation from an art and design studio into a full-service advertising, marketing, public relations and graphic agency because whenever someone asked if he could handle a certain type of job, he said he could.

“I backed my way into it,” Beach told BlackAmericaWeb.com. “I’ve always been inquisitive, and I’ve been a risk-taker. I still am. I am motivated by doing things that people say can’t be done. That gets my juices flowing.”

A painter and violinist, Beach, 72, won a scholarship to the University of the Arts in Philadelphia.

“I got a scholarship in art, and I went with that…it opened the world to me,” Beach said.

After graduation, he went into business in 1958, opening the Creative Art and Design Studio, working for a wide variety of clients.

“It was extraordinarily creative work and (clients) started asking, ‘Do you write copy, too?’ and I used the three-letter word: Yes,” Beach said.

Later, he added media marketing and public relations to the mix, when clients asked if he provided those services as well.

For the past 50 years, Beach Communications has run the gamut, from serving advertising clients to providing scholarships to fostering positive images of African-Americans.

The Beach African-American Owned Media Network became a vehicle to help advertisers and others reach African-American audiences through more than 90 black-owned newspapers with a combined circulation of 4 million readers.

Another of his notable projects is the African-American Historical Calendar, going into its 38th year as a project of the African-American Commemorative Society, which was founded 40 years ago to promote positive images of black Americans.

Beach established the nonprofit George Beach Foundation to provide annual financial awards for books, fees, supplies and materials to assist students of color at his alma mater, the University of the Arts.

The psychic pain of the 9/11 attacks inspired him to create a painting portraying the skeleton of the World Trade Center Towers embracing the American flag under a full moon (www.georgebeach.com). During this same period, he also had been undergoing cortisone treatments that enabled him to return to painting, which he called his “original gift,” after a 25-year hiatus. 
 
In 2007, Beach was appointed to a four-year term on the advisory council of the National Institute of Arthritis and Musculoskeletal and Skin Diseases, and four of his paintings were on display at the International Conference on Rheumatology in Amsterdam.

Any of those careers, successfully plied, would have satisfied most people, but Beach said he was motivated by a natural curiosity and has enjoyed each and every venture he has pursued.

Philadelphia Mayor Michael Nutter, the African-American Chamber of Commerce of Pennsylvania, Southern New Jersey and Delaware honored Beach and his accomplishments Friday evening at a reception in downtown Philadelphia.

“It is only fitting that we honor and acknowledge George Beach for running Philadelphia’s first African-American-owned and longest running ad firm. The board members of the chamber and I are so proud of what he has accomplished,” AACC Executive Director Kim Johnson told The Philadelphia Tribune.

“I kept it going because I kept being asked,” Beach told BlackAmericaWeb.com. “I step to whatever the challenge is, and I figure out a way to make it work. You have to strive for excellence. You can’t just become complacent.”

Please Login or Register to post comments on this article

Close Comment  |   Read More Comments Hide More Comments

Comments * :

Please do not enter the HTML tags(Maximum 600 characters).